It was announced today that Academy Award nominated actor Sam Shepard will be joining the cast of Discovery Channel's first-ever, scripted mini-series KLONDIKE (wt). Shepard will be playing the role of Father Judge. Shepard was nominated for an Academy Award for his role in Philip Kaufman's The Right Stuff. He is also a screenwriter, director and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright for his 1979 three-act play "Buried Alive."

The mini-series, previously announced last year, is based on Charlotte Gray's book Gold Diggers: Striking It Rich in the Klondike, and brings to life the tale about six strangers and their collective fight for survival and wealth in a small, frontier town in the remote Klondike. KLONDIKE is a co-production between Discovery, Entertainment One (eOne), and Nomadic Pictures, in association with Scott Free Productions. International distribution is handled by eOne Television. Paul Scheuring ("Prison Break," "A Man Apart") is the primary writer and will serve as Executive Producer, along with Ridley Scott and David W. Zucker; as well as John Morayniss and Michael Rosenberg for eOne. Eileen O'Neill and Dolores Gavin will serve as Executive Producers for Discovery.

KLONDIKE follows the lives of two childhood best friends, Bill and Epstein, in the late 1890s as they undertake the next, Gold Rush capital in the untamed Yukon Territory. This man-versus-nature tale places our heroes in a land full of undiscovered wealth, but ravaged by harsh conditions, unpredictable weather and desperate, dangerous characters including greedy businessmen, seductive courtesans and native tribes witnessing the destruction of their people and land by opportunistic entrepreneurs.

Production began production last week under the direction of Simon Cellan Jones ("Generation Kill,", "Treme") on location in Alberta, Canada. The series will be produced with assistance of the Government of Alberta, Alberta Film Development Program.